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The strike has ended

I had pretty much given up on the whole bottle thing. It was getting frustrating every time I would offer the bottle he would just play with it and roll it around in his mouth, then I would end up having to throw the precious breast milk that I worked so hard to produce down the drain. Doing that every day for several weeks was discouraging. I think the most frustrating part was that I knew he could take the bottle since he had been doing it for 2 months before he went on strike, he just didn’t want to. We moved on to rice cereal and started trying the sippy cup. He loves the cereal and the sippy cup was pretty messy, but at least I knew he had something in his tummy while I was at work and wasn’t starving.

I was doing the math and had pretty much accepted the fact that I would not be able to leave him for any extended period of time or overnight until he was a year old. Not that I am ready to leave him overnight yet, but it was the idea that it was possible. Or the idea of being able to have a glass of wine or two while out to dinner and not having to worry about enough time going by before I can feed him, or the idea of being able to have a night out with some friends and Justin can feed him a bottle before bed. There are lots of great ideas out there. The feeling that I would not be able to get any kind of break for a really long time was kind of daunting. I do love my boy SO much, but it is nice to have a bit of a break once in a while.

We would still attempt the bottle here and there but I honestly had moved on and really didn’t think it would happen. Then a friend of mine who went through the same thing with her little girl encouraged me to try the Lansinoh mOmma bottles, they were the ones that did the trick for her daughter. We had already tried 6 different kinds of bottles/nipples with no luck so I really didn’t think it was the type of bottle that was the issue, I thought he just didn’t want to do it. So I kind of put it off. The next time I talked to her, she mentioned it again…A few days later I had to go to Babies R Us for something else and decided to pick up one of those bottles while I was there. If nothing else, it would be a nice addition to my collection of bottles of all different sizes, shapes and nipples. The next day I tried it, he did what he usually does and played around with it for a while, but he did latch on, but never took any pulls. After a while, I stopped fed him his cereal and moved on with the day. Two feedings later, I decided to try it again. I reclined his highchair put on some music and got ready to kick back while he played around with the nipple for a while, gave him the bottle and about 30 seconds in he latched on and started taking some pulls. I FROZE. I didn’t dare move my hand or my body for that matter, I didn’t want anything to distract him from his very important job of sucking down that milk. He kept sucking and sucking and was taking it all in, every muscle in my body was tense and my eyes welled up in tears, he is really, finally doing this!! When he finished, I jumped up and down, clapped my hands and was cheering for joy, he was looking at me like I was nutso! I immediately texted Justin, my mom and girlfriends to share the good news (top priority)! I was SO excited, I could hardly stand it. I had to keep myself from updating my Facebook status to “HE FINALLY TOOK THE BOTTLE!!!” (yes all caps are necessary), because I know most people on Facebook could care less, that is what this blog is for.

After I put him to bed that night, I started thinking and hoping that this wasn’t just a one time fluke kind of thing and the real test would be the next day while I was at work. Jacob didn’t let me down, he took the bottle from Justin at both feedings like a champ! I’ve done one feeding a day since then with a bottle and he is doing great! I still feel a little reluctant to be celebrating since it hasn’t even been a full week and I am afraid he will “relapse” but this is a big accomplishment after 5 long weeks of trying, I can’t help shouting this news from the rooftops. This weekend we will be out and about a lot, so we will be trying a bottle feeding in public and will see how he does. This truly is an answer to prayer and thank you to all of you who were praying for this and encouraging me to keep trying. A HUGE weight has been lifted off my shoulders knowing that he will now get a full feeding if I am not around. Justin and I had a pact that if we could get Jacob back on the bottle then we would plan family trip to Paso Robles. So that is our next order of business, I am ready for a fun break!